Lately, I’ve been adding a lot of content to three Pinterest sites: My own, the one I’ve created for our museum, and the one I’ve created for Life/Citation. There is so much neat and interesting content out there that it’s hard not to get trapped into just…looking and looking. One thing that I decided to check out was blog prompts to liven up things here a bit. In trying to be spontaneous, I chose a 365 blog prompt article and pinned it (check it out here).
Since I’m beginning at an odd place in the year and not on day #1, I guess I’ll go with what today is in terms of this year (out of 365 days). Today is day #127.
Prompt #127: Know-it-all: Write about something you are very knowledgeable about, for example a favorite hobby or passion of yours.
I’d like to say genealogy and researching family history, but, even after several years of doing such, I’m still a newbie! 🙂 What I do feel knowledgeable about is my first career of medical transcription (MT). I’ve been doing this since November 1999 and have been certified since February 2004. For a good 10-15 years, I did this job full-time plus and was involved in the national organization and local groups to keep up-to-date with my education and the field. The thing that I loved the most about MT is learning something new every day. At one point, I could not believe I was being paid — and paid fairly well — to do something I very much enjoyed.
The past 2-1/2 years, though, has dealt a crushing death-blow to MT, I’m sad to say. My credentials expire this summer, and I’m letting them go. There is no future in MT. Technology has played a big role in the downfall of the career, and, sadly, that technology is not up to snuff by any means to completely replace a human editor. It’s sad that something that was considered a career now only pays minimum wage…if you’re lucky. If you want more objective information about the demise of MT, check out the free forum mtstars.com. Prepare to be depressed.
With that said, I’ve cut my hours to part-time. The stress was not worth it. I wanted to devote more time to my other passion, genealogy, so I cut some of the dead weight. I still put in 20 hours per week doing MT, and my volunteerism has more than doubled. I have three projects in the works at the museum, plus I do something for ECIGA nearly every day.
Maybe by the time #127 prompt rolls around again, I’ll write about genealogy!
Bonus: The creepy cloud picture…one of the first things I posted!
LifeCitation 